The Scandinavian, Emms John, 2004 - free download book

The basic concept of the Scandinavian Defence is fairly simple. With 1...d5 Black immediately opens lines for his pieces, enabling him to develop smoothly. The cost is that after 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Black has to lose time in restoring the material balance by capturing on d5.

There are two ways to achieve this: 2... Qxd5 is the most direct method, after which White can gain time by attacking the black queen; 2...Nf6 is the other way. The latter move can entail more risk as White has ways of holding onto the pawn, although the element of risk does apply to both parties. I would say that, from Black's point of view at least, 2...Qxd5 lines contain more positional concepts, while 2...Nf6 contains more tactical ones. Before we go head on into the actual theory of this opening, it is important to discuss some of these ideas. I will deal with 2...Qxd5 and 2...Nf6 lines separately, although some of the ideas do overlap.